What I'm looking forward to at the Canada-e-Connect eTourism Conference 2011

The Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference 2011 is around the corner. This will be the 4th edition of Canada-e-Connect and it promises again to stimulate thought and conversation and to encourage attendees to take a fresh look at their current strategy vis a vis the ongoing digital/social revolution and the tourism sector. These are the sessions I am very much looking forward to:

Geo-location Meets Social: The Business Case

Explore the integration of geo-location applications within social media, from lessons learned to the values and benefits of location-based social networking service in helping clients explore the world around them.

This session will deal with one of the hottest tools in social media marketing today, geo-location services. If you don't use them as a consumer or as a business, at the very least you will have heard of them - e.g. Foursquare, Facebook Places, Google's Places App, Gowalla and others. The session's panelists/presenters are Sarah Best, Social Media Strategist for Chicago Tourism and Andy Elwood, Director Business Development for Gowalla. The moderator will be a good friend of Canada's Tourism Industry, the affable Jim Brody from TripAdvisor. Don't miss this session. In my opinion, Geo-location services will be the biggest thing in social marketing in 2011 (followed by Group Buying services like Groupon, Wagjag, LivingSocial, etc - unfortunately we won't have a session on Group Buying, but there's always CeC 2012).

Online Video: Luncheon & Panel Presentation

Join session moderator Jaime Horwitz as he explores the world of online video applications with an impressive line up of experts who have applied this innovative technology to generate positive results. An opportunity to ask questions on the value and worth of incorporating video into websites; the return on investment and the dos and don’ts.

I'm moderating this session, so naturally, I'm very much looking forward to it. We all know the power of the moving image. However, implementing a video strategy is very daunting to many tourism businesses. It is much easier to start a Facbook page and a Twitter feed than to start a video strategy. First, there's the cost and then there's the knowhow. And most importantly creativity: how to use video and digital video technology to achieve organizational goals. We will address this topic during the session and we will also talk about the latest developments in this space. We have four terrific panelists from 4 different companies working with video and digital technology. Kulin Strimbu, President and CEO of TripTelevison, Abe McCallum CEO Clikthrough, Todd Pasternack, Director Technology Group Pointroll and Bob Kane, TV Producer and Principal Entertainment Travel Consultants and the Creative Alliance Network.

Panel Discussion: Building a Social Media Department

Re-thinking your social media strategy? This panel session will consider some of the administrative realities of running an in-house social media department. Topics will range from human resources issues to establishing practical social media guidelines, as well as other considerations to keep in mind when implementing your strategy.

Ah, social media, the Holy Grail - getting society to do your marketing for you - going viral - everybody's new dream. But someone has to be in charge. Someone has to Tweet. Someone has to update the Facebook page. Someone has to manage the Foursquare specials. Etc. How do you keep up? How do you establish an in-house social media department "without breaking the bank" as Joel Peters (Tourism Toronto) put it? This session will deal with this challenge. The panel couldn't be better. Moderated by Troy Thompson of Travel 2.0 consulting, Ed Lee, Director Social Media DDB Canada, Sean Moffit of Agent Wildfire and Wikibrands fame, and Erica Ehm, Creator/Publisher/Entrepreneur The YummyMummyClub.ca. I am sure this will be one of my favourite session at the conference.

Finally, I am also looking forward to the closing Keynote with Amber MacArthur aka Amber Mac, technology host, journalist, strategist and social media guru author of "Power Friending" a book that has been widely praised by Canadian and international media (my review coming soon on this blog).

Check out the entire Canada-e-Connect 2011 program to see what sessions appeal the most to you. And register if you haven't already. Hope to see you there.

Jaime Horwitz MBA,

Digital Marketer, social Media Strategist, Canadian Tourism enthusiast

Is your brand a One Night Stand or a Serious Relationship? Part II

Staying with the topic of relationships and tourism destinations or businesses (see previous blogpost), tourism marketers would benefit from strategies that segment their visitors between those who are just looking for a "one night stand" and those who want or could develop a "serious relationship" with their destination, attraction or tourism business. This is easier said than done, but not impossible. At the micro-level, small tourism businesses like lake resorts, B&B's, restaurants and some attractions already have "going steady" relationships with many of their customers. For example, my family has an ongoing relationship with the Gravenhurst, Ontario area. We try to go to the same vacation rental property every year. Every year we go to the same ice-cream parlour at the Muskoka Wharf and the same café in Port Carling. We always shop at the stores in that town - I particularly like Muskoka Bear Wear.

I also have a "serious relationship" with the IHG Hotel Group. I am a Priority Club Ambassador member. Informally, I have made a commitment to stay at IHG hotels wherever I go if at all possible. Priority Club is their loyalty program and Ambassador is a higher level of membership, and implies a bigger commitment from IHG to make these loyal guests happy and treat them in a special way. As long as I perceive a real benefit from this membership, I will remain loyal to the brand. The main reason for this loyalty is that I always know what I'm going to get when I travel and stay at the different IHG brand hotels.

In today's "world of the customer," in the new "era of pull", where the "customers are the message", and brand is the sum of customers' Public tweets, comments, complaints, videos, etc., knowing what kind of relationship your business or destination can aspire to and with whom is critical for long term viability. The number of substitutes for all leisure and entertainment products is growing exponentially. The current global economic reality will force consumers to make tough decisions. "Should we go for a weekend to Montreal or New York or should we buy the new Apple MacBook Air?" We are not just competing with other destinations or attractions. We are competing for consumers' share of wallet with a myriad of products and services. Today more than ever we must strive to make our guests and visitors feel special. We should focus on developing "long term relationships."

When applying Social Media strategy to these two kinds of customers what might be the right approach:

• For your "going steady" customers you should strive to develop an ongoing dialog. These customers should be more open to receiving your newsletters and follow you on Twitter. It is very important that you listen and respond to these customers more than any others. They will be the champions of your brand. Applying what I call PERL to these guests would yield the best results. P for promotion, E for engagement, R for responding and L for listening, not in that particular order, of course, but easy to remember. Furthermore, you should consider a loyalty program of some sort. With the explosion of geolocation services that are easy to use, you should think about a FourSquare, Gowalla, Living Social, WagJag and/or other geolocation and group buying strategy.
• For your potential "one night stands" you would apply more traditional marketing tactics, including digital and traditional advertising, supported by social media elements (and attractive price points). Harness the positive content created by past guests and your brand champions and do everything possible to distribute that content for all to see. Tourism British Columbia is an example of a destination that has striven to do this with their blogs. TBC was one of the first destinations in Canada that offered travelers the opportunity to create blog posts on their official website. When TBC started its blog social media had not taken off yet so readers could not share blogposts via Twitter and FB, but today they can and TBC rightly added "share this" buttons to every post.

In conclusion, I suggest you begin to look at the marketplace with fresh eyes. Take time to figure out how marketing fits with this idea of your "steady" guestfriends vs. your "short term affair" guests and how you can use digital marketing to engage them both. Remember that divorce is a very real threat and that there are many other destinations that could take your "steady" guestfriends away if you don't treat them right. I leave you with another TIAC Tourism Summit tweet from Pierre Bellrose - I believe - about Doug Fyfe's presentation on the US Market:

Pierrebellerose

"Peut importe ce que le Canada essaie sur le marché touristique américain depuis 10 ans, cela ne donne pas de résultats #Tiacsummit" "No matter what Canada has tried to do with the American tourism market, after 10 years we haven't seen results"

Cheers,

Jaime

Is your brand a One Night Stand or a Serious Relationship? The challenge for Tourism Destinations in Social Media

"Thanks to all re: #TIACsummit. Seems #socialmedia is top of mind. What are your thoughts on its place in the #tourism industry? Discuss! ^AJ" Deloitte Canada's Tweet from the Tourism Summit 2010 - Ironically, Social Media is not an official topic in the conference (for that don't miss Canada-e-Connect 2011, next February in Toronto)

More than 15 million people like "Starbucks" on Facebook. Same goes for Coca-Cola. The Skittles brand has generated about 12 million likes on the dominant social networking site. (see "5 Most Engaged Brands in Social Media" on Mashable). The official Facebook page for the city of Paris has only 381,818 likers as of today (Nov 2, 2010). Amazingly the official FB page for NYC & Company, the official tourism board for the Big Apple, only has 7,964 likes! Ironically, a non-official community (Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic) Facebook Page for New York City has over 1 million members. Canada? Well, the Canadian Tourism Commission's official "Keep Exploring" Facebook Page has 16,309 likers as of today. Tourism Toronto's official FB page? 25,144 likers. Tourisme-Montreal, which does not have a direct link to Facebook on its official website's home page (sacrebleu): 18,286. The blog I ♥ Mtl, which is not connected to Tourism Montreal, has over 41,000 likers.

Starbucks and Coca-Cola are two of the biggest global brands. But one could say that New York, Paris and Canada are also global brands. These destinations are known the world over. So what happens in the world of social media that the difference in engagement between these product brands and just about any destination in the world is so big? The answer is simple. Consumer brands have the potential to develop "serious relationships" with consumers, they can achieve a "going steady" state of affairs.

Many consumers drink a Starbucks coffee or a Coke soft drink every single day so they have an ongoing and physical relationship with the product. Millions of consumers use their iPhones not only every day, but every hour! They even feel attached to their mobile device (not me).

Tourism destinations, on the other hand, particularly for leisure travelers, are usually "one night stands." This is great for the traveler, but not so good for the destination. Given the myriad destinations available to the average traveler, why would anyone commit to visiting the same place year after year? Similarly, if I will probably visit your destination only once (maybe twice) in my lifetime, why would I join your Facebook page or your Twitter feed? If I joined all the FB pages of destinations I want to or plan to visit in the future, my FB wall would be clogged to the point of annoying frustration (I have already started deleting some "Likes" in order to clean up the stream).

Fortunately, not all destinations are a "one night stand" for every traveler. It is possible to "go steady" with many (sometimes millions) visitors. While not all destinations (or specific tourism businesses) can aspire to achieve this in any substantial way, activity specific destinations and large urban centers have the best chances for two reasons: 1) passion and 2) proximity. Passion refers to people who belong to specific groups or tribes who travel to the same destination because of the activity that takes place there and nowhere else. The Caribana and Toronto International Film Festivals are two examples. Many passionate Caribana revelers and avid film-goers go to these events every year they can. The SXSW Festival in Austin Texas attracts many repeat visitors every year as do many music Festivals like Coachella in California. Proximity: destinations that are easy and affordable to get to in a short period of time can also develop "long term relationships" with travelers (e.g. New York City, Toronto, Niagara Falls, Boston, Montreal, Ottawa can all be reached relatively easily from each other - of course some pairing work better: NYC-Toronto, Toronto-Niagara, etc). I know destinations close to other cities, states or countries have always targeted those nearby consumers in traditional ways, it is important to revisit this in the age of social media.

It is the consumers closer to your destination that are the best prospects for ongoing social media engagement because it is these consumers that are most likely to be repeat visitors. It is these travelers who may be most interested in what's going on at your destination, e.g. events, festivals, special offers, etc. And it is with these travelers with whom your destination has the best chances at developing a dialog with. Finally, it is these visitors that you should find a way to reward for their "loyalty."

To be cont'd.....

Jaime Horwitz MBA
Cactus Rock New Media

What do Social Media managers do? Who plays the role in your Tourism Business? No one?!?!

The roles of Social Media Manager and Director of Social Media (or similar titles) are very new. Even as recent as a year ago you would have been hard pressed to find any organization with a manager or director of Social Media. Some companies had people doing some of the things that social media managers are doing now. Many organizations delegated the functions to an outside Ad or PR agency. Some other organizations delegated some of the activities (or all) that social media managers should do to someone in their IT department or a Webmaster. Recalling Dr. Ian Fenwick's remarks at Canada-e-Connect 2009, having an IT professional doing digital (or social media) marketing is insane! Even today, I come across job postings looking for Social Media expertise that are more focused on technical aspects, like programming or CMS expertise, instead of communications and marketing backgrounds.

Canada is just beginning to catch up to other parts of the world (mostly the US and the UK to be more precise) when it comes to creating specific roles for digital and social media marketing practitioners (one job posting that I thought was funny was one in which the organization was looking for someone with about 8 years experience in Social Media - laughable, right? there was NO social media to speak of 8 years ago when Google was barely 3 years old!).

So what do the responsibilities of a Manager of Social Media would look like on paper?

Strategy - work closely with the appropriate colleagues to devise and implement the organization's social media strategy

Content (is still king) - create and agglomerate content from colleagues or outside sources, get approval for posts if needed) and publish content across social media platforms (make the content travel). Maintain the organization's social media presence up to date.

Engagement - harness the power of super fans of the brand, product, destination, by designing ways to reward these consumers for their contributions

Training - train and educate colleagues in the organization on the relevant aspects of social media depending on the organization's objectives

Research - stay informed on latest developments and trends in social media and communicate these to colleagues in the organization - monitor competitors' digital presence.

Measurement - use relevant metrics to measure effectiveness and prepare reports

Analysis - make recommendations on marketing initiatives based on sound analysis

Jaime

www.cactusrock.com

Canada-e-Connect 2010 went viral and international. Musings #CEC2010 Post #4 Cajun_Mama's video: the Travel Bloggers Forum

Shannon Hurst Lane set up her laptop to Ustream our Canada-e-Connect 2010

Travel Bloggers and Twitterers panel with her, Wendy Perrin and Kim Mance, and myself moderating

Thanks Shannon.

Social Media is not a FAD. It's the new way to communicate and stay in touch.

I don't know if all the data on this video is correct, but it is undeniable that social media and social media tools are here to stay and are changing the way a significant percentage of the world's population behaves in their daily lives. Digital everything, as Prof. Ian Fenwick has said, is the new standart gauge. And digital technology is what enables social media.

The enormous challenge for tourism marketers is understanding how best to take advantage of the new normal in communications. At Canada-e-Connect 2009, we focused a lot on engaging people as oppose to targeting target markets. This is easier said than done. Travel is very unique in terms of engaging people and creating relationships with destination brands. Destinations are not like iPods or Nike Airs. Many people visit a destination just once or twice in their lives. They don't interact with the destination on a daily basis like people do with their iPhones, Blackberrys, Nike Airs, Honda Civics or Swatch watches. How then to take advantage of the conversation out there. Currently, Twitter is the rage, but the micro-blogging service is just one in many tools that tourism marketers can use. No tool will accomplish everything you need to accomplish as a tourism marketer. Sometimes, old style call-to-action price-point advertising may be just what is needed. Social Media should be more of an ongoing activity regardless of the season.

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Social Media at Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy 2009

Social Media Marketing is a relatively new tool in a marketers toolbox. In fact, so new that many organizations are still trying to understand the relatively new phenomenon of Social Media. Many companies equate Social Media marketing with advertising on a social media site, like MySpace or Facebook. But advertising is only one area of social media marketing and not necessarily the most effective. Participating in social media is more important. How do you participate in order to generate business? What are the issues surrounding social media marketing? Should social media marketing be part of your overall eTourism strategy? "Social media is a tool that cannot be ignored when developing e-marketing strategies for tourism. Making use of these online tools to share and discuss information and experiences through text, photos, videos and audio with other like-minded individuals through web-based social interactions is one of the most ubiquitous trends of recent years." Canada-e-Connect's Social Media Marketing Panel will examine social media as it relates to tourism from a variety of perspectives.

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Don't miss the Social Media Marketing panel session at Canada-e-Connect, Thursday, January 23 at 8:30 am. William Bakker, Director of E-business for Tourism British Columbia (top) will moderate a panel with Jaime Horwitz, Chair, CEC Advisory Committee; President, Cactus Rock New Media Ltd, www.canadamigos.com; Del Ross, Vice President, Distribution Marketing, InterContinental Hotels Group, www.ichotelsgroup.com; and Snow Rosen, Sales Director, Bazaarvoice, www.bazaarvoice.com. Register at www.canadaeconnect.com or on site at the InterContinental Hotel Toronto Centre on Front Street beginning Wed Jan 21 at 6pm.

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Regards,

Jaime Horwitz MBA

Chair Advisory Committee Canada-e-Connect 2009

Focus on Canada-e-Connect the Shift to DigiMarketing

TIAC's and my own focus as Chair of the Advisory Committee now turns to Canada-e-Connect eTourism Strategy Conference, the Shift to DigiMarketing. This conference designed for decision makers in the industry will cover the vast number of topics surrounding Digital Marketing. We are calling it Digital Marketing a oppose to Online Marketing because it is the digital aspect of communications technology that tourism marketers should understand best. Whether it is the Web, Mobile, Digital Signage (indoor and outdoor), digital TV, or Gaming, all of it is based on digital technology which means content can travel. It means a digital poster can communicate with a mobile device. Dr. Ian Fenwick, co-author of DigiMarketing has been confirmed as our opening Keynote Speaker. Consumers, i.e. travelers can interact with tourism providers via many devices. What are the implications for marketing and tourism product distribution in this constantly evolving environment? Canada-e-Connect 2009 will answer many of the questions from a strategic point of view. Whether you own a small B&B or manage a chain of hotels, you should not miss Canada-e-Connect January 21 to 23 at the InterContinental Hotel in Downtown Toronto. Registration is now open.

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Jaime Horwitz MBA
Chair Canada-e-Connect Advisory Committee

The Canadamigos Social Network hits 1,000 members and counting. Canadá en Español goes 2.0.

Canadamigos.com is a new social network launched late December 2007 by the Canadá en Español Network. The site is intended to foster travel to and within Canada through friendship among Canadians, Hispanic-Canadians and Hispanics around the world. This past weekend, Canadamigos reached and surpassed 1,000 members from many countries including Canada, the USA, Mexico, Spain, Argentina and others. Members communicate in Spanish, English and French. Membership is free for individuals but all memberships need to be approved first.
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The idea for a social network like Canadamigos had been brewing in my head for several months before its launch. Throughout 2007 I had been reading about Web 2.0 and Social Media in tourism. Social Media and Social Networking became the new buzz words for the tourism industry. Marketing experts began to pay attention to consumers' conversations online - reviews, blog posts, discussions, forums (e.g. Tripadvisor, WAYN, VirtualTourist, Facebook). Many hoteliers and destinations began to realize the power of these conversations (positive and negative). Tourism businesses were encouraged to "Participate in the Conversation" as a means to protect or enhance their reputations and the phrase Social Media Marketing was (and still is) constantly referred to as the must do for online marketers.

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Knowing Hispanics around the world are very interested in Canada and witnessing the growth of inbound Hispanic tourism markets to Canada as well as continued traffic growth from the Canada en Español websites I did not worry that maybe I would not find a sufficient number of members, but rather whether the investment and effort involved in launching, managing, monitoring and contributing to the network would be worth it. After reading more about this issue in the blogosphere (e.g. Sponsorships on Social Networks -Niche Social Networks Will Continue To Be Hot In 2008 - Social Media is the Future of the Travel Industry) and feeling the pressure from my own marketing juices, I decided to go ahead.

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Two of my fellow Tips From the T-List bloggers, Vicky Brock and Stephen Budd define Web 2.0/Travel 2.0 as "Community, interactivity, reciprocity, two-way marketing conversation, the long tail, create, modify, self-publish, user generated content, rich media, collaboration," and "Technically: blogs, RSS, flash media (no flash = no YouTube). Economically: (almost) zero cost to entry. Socially: critical mass of chatterers." (Tracking Tourism: The Tourism Research Blog: Travel 2.0: what does it mean and do you need to care? )

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All the elements mentioned by Vicky and Stephen are present in one way or another in Canadamigos. People are interacting, asking questions, participating in groups (e.g. Travel Within Canada Group, Toronto Group, Adventure Tourism Group, Canadian Culture Group, etc). However, we're just in the early stages. The next stage is to achieve the support of the supply and DMO side of the Canadian Tourism Industry. The vision is to create a platform where consumer generated content interacts and complements professional content, where consumers can find great options for travel to Canada and within Canada and tourism businesses can "participate in the conversation" and attract new customers and repeat customers (long tail).

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In future posts I will describe how Canadamigos is doing and provide examples of the Web 2.0/Travel 2.0 elements mentioned above.

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Saludos,

Jaime Horwitz

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